All Eyes on Ayatollah Raeisi
Hopefuls Register for Presidential Race in Iran
TEHRAN (Dispatches) -- Iran on Tuesday opened registration for candidates hoping to succeed President Hassan Rouhani, who will step down following the June 18 elections after serving the maximum two consecutive terms allowed.
The five-day registration period at the interior ministry ends on Saturday, with the names of candidates then handed to the Constitutional Council for vetting.
More than 20 public figures have officially announced their intention to run, with the final list of those qualified due on May 26-27, the interior ministry said.
Former Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) official Saeed Muhammad was one of the first to submit his name Tuesday.
Muhammad, 53, who headed the IRGC’s construction and engineering arm for over two years, resigned last in March to run.
Another was Muhammad Hassan Nami, an army general who was briefly telecoms minister under former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Several top political figures are seen as possible presidential hopefuls, but are yet to declare whether they will run.
They include former parliament speaker Ali Larijani, judiciary chief Ebrahim Raisi and Foreign Minister Muhammad Javad Zarif.
Others include Mohsen Rezaei, an outspoken former top commander; Hussein Dehqan, an adviser to Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei; Rostam Qasemi, a former oil minister; and Muhammad Baqer Qalibaf, the speaker of Iran’s parliament.
Muhammad and several other
hopefuls have said they would withdraw their candidacy if Raisi decided to run.
"Following an increase in popular requests from Ayatollah Raisi for his candidacy in the presidential election, information obtained by Tanim’s reporter indicates that his candidacy has been confirmed,” the Tasnim news agency said. The Fars news agency carried a similar report.
The Constitutional Council will announce a final list of candidates by May 27, and a 20-day campaign season begins the following day. National TV called the election "an opportunity for change.”
Ayatollah Khamenei has in recent months urged for high turnout, expressing hope that this would encourage the emergence of new young president, as the generation who oversaw the country’s 1979 revolution is ageing.
The registration process comes as Iran and world powers are engaged in talks to revive a 2015 nuclear accord, from which the U.S. withdrew unilaterally in 2018, reimposing inhuman sanctions.
As many view Iran’s principlists as ascendant, the U.S. under President Joe Biden is said to be trying to find a way to re-enter the nuclear accord even though it is dragging its feet on undoing the former American regime’s wrongs.
On Tuesday, Press TV said excessive demands made by the United States and its refusal to remove hundreds of sanctions on Iran are hindering the talks.
The network said it learned that the United States is insisting on keeping 500 anti-Iran sanctions intact.
The five-day registration period at the interior ministry ends on Saturday, with the names of candidates then handed to the Constitutional Council for vetting.
More than 20 public figures have officially announced their intention to run, with the final list of those qualified due on May 26-27, the interior ministry said.
Former Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) official Saeed Muhammad was one of the first to submit his name Tuesday.
Muhammad, 53, who headed the IRGC’s construction and engineering arm for over two years, resigned last in March to run.
Another was Muhammad Hassan Nami, an army general who was briefly telecoms minister under former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Several top political figures are seen as possible presidential hopefuls, but are yet to declare whether they will run.
They include former parliament speaker Ali Larijani, judiciary chief Ebrahim Raisi and Foreign Minister Muhammad Javad Zarif.
Others include Mohsen Rezaei, an outspoken former top commander; Hussein Dehqan, an adviser to Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei; Rostam Qasemi, a former oil minister; and Muhammad Baqer Qalibaf, the speaker of Iran’s parliament.
Muhammad and several other
hopefuls have said they would withdraw their candidacy if Raisi decided to run.
"Following an increase in popular requests from Ayatollah Raisi for his candidacy in the presidential election, information obtained by Tanim’s reporter indicates that his candidacy has been confirmed,” the Tasnim news agency said. The Fars news agency carried a similar report.
The Constitutional Council will announce a final list of candidates by May 27, and a 20-day campaign season begins the following day. National TV called the election "an opportunity for change.”
Ayatollah Khamenei has in recent months urged for high turnout, expressing hope that this would encourage the emergence of new young president, as the generation who oversaw the country’s 1979 revolution is ageing.
The registration process comes as Iran and world powers are engaged in talks to revive a 2015 nuclear accord, from which the U.S. withdrew unilaterally in 2018, reimposing inhuman sanctions.
As many view Iran’s principlists as ascendant, the U.S. under President Joe Biden is said to be trying to find a way to re-enter the nuclear accord even though it is dragging its feet on undoing the former American regime’s wrongs.
On Tuesday, Press TV said excessive demands made by the United States and its refusal to remove hundreds of sanctions on Iran are hindering the talks.
The network said it learned that the United States is insisting on keeping 500 anti-Iran sanctions intact.